FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Jets got destroyed on Sunday, 54-13, by the Patriots and now must pick up the pieces at 1-5 without injured quarterback Zach Wilson. Here are some thoughts and observations from the game:
1. NFL coaches are very proud, confident people. They would not have reached the top of their profession without tremendous belief in their ability. Robert Saleh is no different. You can tell how much he believes in his coaching acumen and what he has already achieved in the NFL.
But there are also moments when you see coaches humbled in this job. Sunday was one for Saleh.
I’m not sure how it is with other teams, but in my years covering the Jets, I have seen this several times where, in a postgame press conference, the coach looks like he realized just how big this job is. That is how Saleh appeared after Sunday’s blowout loss. There was some anger that came through, a few curse words, but overall the look on Saleh’s face said to me, “this is harder than I thought it would be.”
When Saleh was being wined and dined by teams in January, he never thought about a day like Sunday. He never thought about that Gillette Stadium scoreboard reading 54-13. He never thought about how hopeless he’d feel as the Patriots threw the ball over his defense’s heads despite having a big lead in the fourth quarter.
I’m sure Saleh realized that turning the Jets around would not be easy, but did he realize it would be this hard? Losing has become a habit with the Jets. It is hard to wipe that out in nine months. Saleh’s roster is not good, although there is no way it is 41 points worse than the 3-4 Patriots. That was not the best team in football on the other sideline on Sunday.
Saleh had his moment on Sunday where he realized just how tough this Jets job is. Todd Bowles had it in Year 2 on the job after a successful Year 1. I remember a postgame in Kansas City, after Ryan Fitzpatrick threw six interceptions and his team had been fighting on the sideline and in the locker room. For Adam Gase, I remember the loss to a winless Dolphins team in Miami that dropped them to 1-7 in 2019. Gase stared at a stat sheet just outside the locker room like he was trying to make sense of what he just witnessed.
Bowles and Gase were never able to solve the riddle that is the Jets. Saleh is just getting started, and maybe he still will. But Sunday, he looked like a man who just figured out how tricky this job can be.
2. You knew that Mike White was going to have to play at some point this season. The backup quarterback was a huge story this spring and summer around the Jets, and you just knew that at some point we’d see White.
Let’s get this straight, though: This is what the Jets’ brass chose. So, I don’t expect them to scramble and find an alternative now that Zach Wilson is likely out for several weeks with a knee injury. They knew they would probably need to play their backup, and they chose to stick with White rather than sign a veteran. A Jets starting quarterback has not made it through a full season since Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2015, and he only got the job because Geno Smith had his jaw broken in training camp. Fitzpatrick lost the job in 2016 not to injury but to a benching, but his replacements Smith and later Bryce Petty both were injured.
The Jets proclaimed that they believed in White whenever pressed on the issue. Now, they can prove it. White did some good things Sunday and deserves a shot. Remember, he has not had any meaningful reps with the starters since the first few days of training camp when Wilson was still in a contract dispute. Once Wilson arrived, the focus was on getting him ready with all the snaps. During the season, the backup plays on the scout team, but does not get many reps with the starters. Theoretically, White should play better after a week of practice with the starting offense.
3. I have thrown some bouquets at the Jets defense early in the season for the way they played. Not today. It was hideous on Sunday. The Jets’ young defense finally cracked and it was ugly. The Patriots were able to do whatever they wanted against the Jets. Yes, they were missing C.J. Mosley and that hurt, but that much? They could not even function. From the start, the Patriots rolled down the field and ran right through the middle of the Jets defense. What happened to the defensive line? That unit is the strength of this steam and is not made up of rookies and second-year players like the secondary. But they were pushed around by the Patriots.
Robert Saleh preaches “no explosives” to his defense, but the Patriots had a whopping eight plays of 25 yards or more. By comparison, the Jets have 12 plays of 25 yards or more all season. By the end of the game, the Jets were down to around seven or eight at linebacker after all the injuries (no Mosley, Jarrad Davis, Jamien Sherwood, Hamsah Nasirildeen, Blake Cashman, Quincy Williams), so that explains some of why the fourth quarter looked like it did. They had players out there who had no business playing on Sunday.
It does not explain the beginning of the game, though. We have been all over the Jets offense for its slow starts, but this is now two weeks in a row where the Jets were down 17-0 before the game even really started. The Patriots made it look easy early against Saleh’s defense. That has to be troubling for everyone around the Jets.
4. Man, is Bill Belichick ever going to get over the Jets? I mean, come on, Bill. You won. You have won a billion Super Bowls in the last 21 years and have proven you are the greatest coach ever. We get it. Yet, it still feels like Belichick relishes rubbing the Jets noses in it every chance he gets. The Jets’ coaches and players can say that they were not bothered by him running it up in the fourth, but they had to be a little upset. If they don’t, they have no pride. Score another one for Belichick over his old employer. At least the Jets won’t have to see him again until next year.
Revealing stat: This is not some hidden stat that I uncovered but I think it needs to be driven home. The Jets have now lost 12 straight games to the Patriots. This used to be a rivalry. This used to be a big game that was on primetime and everyone was excited about. Now, it is a joke, never more so than Sunday’s debacle. It is a measuring stick of how far the Jets have fallen over the last decade.
Surprising snap count: Jamison Crowder led all receivers with 52 snaps (out of 65). It is strange for the slot receiver to play the most snaps. Maybe the Jets were trying to showcase Crowder if anyone is considering trading for him this week.
Game ball: I’m giving this one to Mike White. I know he threw two interceptions, but he looked like he belonged and the Jets moved the ball on a few drives with him. That is a very hard way to enter your first NFL game, and he did not look overwhelmed.
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